Shen Chun-shan

Shen Chun-shan is a retired academic in Taiwan, most noted for his position as the former head of National Tsing Hua University. He is known as one of the "four princes of the Kuomintang" along with Chen Li-an, Fredrick Chien , and Lien Chan, all of whose fathers attained prominent positions in the Kuomintang prior to their sons' successes.

Shen's parents were both highly educated and had studied in the United States; his maternal grandfather also went to France as an exchange student. A propensity to strokes runs in his family; his maternal grandfather died of a stroke in his 30s while in France, and his mother died of the same cause when the young Shen himself was only 9. He followed his father to Taiwan a few years later in 1949. He graduated from National Taiwan University's physics department in 1955. In 1957, he left Taiwan for the United States, where he received a doctorate in physics from the in 1961 before going on to teach at Princeton University and Purdue University as well as taking up a position at NASA. He returned to Taiwan in 1973 to take up a post as the head of National Tsing Hua University's sciences faculty, at a salary only one-eighth that which he received in the United States, earning him praise as a "model of patriotism" for his actions.

Shen entered into politics in 1988, with his appointment to the Executive Yuan's Governmental Affairs Commission; he later served as a member of the Central Election Committee, an arbitrator of the Academia Sinica, and most prominently with the National Unification Council, as a member of which he made three visits to Zhongnanhai to meet with People's Republic of China leaders. He took up his post as the president of National Tsing Hua University in 1993; he retired from that position and from academic life in 1997.

Outside of his academic and political work, Shen enjoys playing and bridge. He played for the Taiwan bridge team that won second in place in the Bermuda Bowl in 1969. He also started the first international chapter of the University of Maryland's alumni association, and was a member of the first group elected to their Alumni Hall of Fame when it was established in 1995. His health deteriorated further after his retirement; he suffered his first stroke in June 1999. In September 2005, a year and a half after the 2004 publication of the first portion of his memoirs, he suffered his second stroke. However, even after his second stroke, he continued writing; his series of biographies of five Go masters Go Seigen, Minoru Kitani, Rin Kaiho, Cho Hunhyun, and Nie Weiping was published in June 2006. His third stroke, which left him in a coma, came on 6 July 2007; he was hospitalised at Hsinchu's Mackay Memorial Hospital.

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